Plans for closer European military cooperation will not be released until after next month’s EU referendum, it has been claimed.
The plans, which outline new European military and operational structures that include a headquarters, have been drawn up by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.
The Times reported that the proposals will not be seen by European leaders until a summit on 28 June – almost a week after the UK referendum.
It is feared that doing so before the vote could boost the leave campaign.
To keep the lid on the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy proposals, only a small number of diplomats are allowed to view the documents in a sealed room and must leave electronic devices outside, according to the report.
However, they are allowed to make handwritten notes, some of which the Times said it had seen.
According to those notes, the proposals urged the EU to create defence structures under the provisions of the 2009 Lisbon treaty and based on the EU diplomatic service.
Similar moves five years ago towards what some described then as an “EU army” were vetoed by the UK.
A government spokesperson said: “The prime minister has repeatedly made clear that the UK will never be a part of an EU army. We retain a veto on all defence matters in the EU and we will oppose any measures which would undermine member states’ military forces.”
Early last year European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said that the EU needed its own army to help the union be taken more seriously as an international force.
He said such a move would help the EU to stand up to Russian aggression.
Juncker, who has long backed creating an EU army, said that such a move would be more cost-effective and encourage further European integration.
“Such an army would help us design a common foreign and security policy,” the former prime minister of Luxembourg said in a newspaper interview.
The idea was rejected by Downing Street at the time.
